CrossFireArarbia

Saudi FM: Stop The Killings in Gaza

CrossFireArabia
February 13, 2026

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan called for an immediate halt to killings in Gaza and rebuilding the enclave, saying “dying in Gaza has not stopped” despite a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Speaking Friday during a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference, the minister said the ceasefire had failed to end fatalities in Gaza, stressing the need to stop the violence and begin rebuilding the devastated territory.

Prince Faisal also emphasized the need to preserve the unity of Gaza and the West Bank, saying stability in Gaza is essential to that goal. He underscored the importance of addressing Palestinian rights, including the right to self-determination.

His remarks come amid heightened tensions in the West Bank, after Israel’s government approved measures on Sunday aimed at changing the legal and civil reality there, including expanding enforcement powers into areas designated as A and B.

An Oct. 10 ceasefire agreement ended Israel’s two-year war that began on Oct. 8, 2023. Palestinian authorities say the conflict killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, wounded over 171,000 others and caused widespread destruction affecting 90% of civilian infrastructure. The UN estimates reconstruction costs at approximately $70 billion.

At least 591 Palestinians have been killed and over 1,578 others injured in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Munich is hosting the 62nd Munich Security Conference from Friday through Sunday under tight security, as diplomats describe the current period as the most turbulent since the end of the Cold War, marked by escalating conflicts and growing uncertainty over the future of the global order. Anadolu

News

80K Make The Friday Prayers in Al Aqsa

CrossFireArabia
February 13, 2026

A total of 80,000 Palestinians perform the Friday noon prayers at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The figure is expected to be far higher during Ramadan.

News

Albanese: ‘I Will Not Resign’

CrossFireArabia
February 13, 2026

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese rejected calls for her resignation after French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot urged her to step down over her unwavering denunciation of Israel’s alleged war crimes.

She described the criticism as a smear campaign linked to her stance and affirmed that she will continue advocating for Palestinian rights despite mounting pressure.

News

‘True’ Image of The Genocide Unveilled

CrossFireArabia
February 13, 2026

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has launched the third edition of the WikiRights project in the Gaza Strip, targeting a new cohort of young men and women who survived the genocide in the enclave.

Launched in Gaza, the project targets 12 young Palestinian men and women. It provides them with in-depth training in human rights research and documentation, as well as professional editing on Wikipedia. The training covers creating, developing, and updating content, and involves using editing and contribution tools in both Arabic and English.

The project aims to enable participants to produce reliable content based on international documentation standards, address knowledge gaps concerning human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory, and improve worldwide access to accurate, current information. Additionally, it strives to develop the skills of a young generation equipped with digital influence tools, empowering them to protect the human rights narrative from marginalisation or distortion on open knowledge platforms.

At a time when online platforms often disseminate false information about victims of armed conflicts, it is crucial for us to empower young people to share accurate facts and document Israeli crimes

Anas Jerjawi, Chief Operations Officer at Euro-Med Monitor

This round of the project is an exceptional version driven by the reality of the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip. Its main focus is on live field documentation and interviewing victims and witnesses, rather than just content creation, due to the urgent need to challenge efforts to conceal the true story of victims of genocide.

The first round of the project was launched in 2015 to enrich Wikipedia, which ranks seventh in the world by visitor numbers, with accounts of victims of violations in the historical documentation of contemporary events and crises, and to promote and develop human rights content in the electronic encyclopaedia. The project also aims to train human rights defenders to use the encyclopaedia and to modify its articles.

Upon completion of the training, participants are expected to take responsibility for adding documentation-based articles to Wikipedia that are rooted in live testimonies. This effort aims to showcase the stories of genocide victims in Gaza and ensure their voices are heard by the international community as part of a historical and human rights record.

Euro-Med Monitor’s Chief Operations Officer, Anas Jerjawi, said, “Training young people to edit Wikipedia content seeks to transform victims of genocide in Gaza from mere statistics into storytellers, especially given the recent failures of some platforms or their complicity in not conveying the scale of genocide.”

“At a time when online platforms often disseminate false information about victims of armed conflicts, it is crucial for us to empower young people to share accurate facts and document Israeli crimes, ensuring that these details are not exclusively recorded by the perpetrators,” Jerjawi added.

Wikipedia is regarded as a major online resource for information and statistics. Amid increasing events and armed conflicts in the MENA region, Euro-Med Monitor’s detailed analysis of human rights content on Wikipedia revealed that both the Arabic and English versions of the encyclopaedia have weak coverage, especially regarding the genocide in Gaza.

While government-issued official narratives largely shape Wikipedia articles, there is a near-total lack of stories from victims and survivors. Therefore, adding field-based facts and documented testimonies is crucial to fill this gap and promote fair, unbiased reporting on human rights issues.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor launched the WikiRights project in 2015 to record victims’ stories alongside official narratives. This effort reflects the organisation’s commitment to involving marginalised groups, especially victims of occupation and genocide, in shaping priorities and defending their rights. – Euro-Med Monitor

Culture

Gaza Radio Station Returns to The Airwaves

CrossFireArabia
February 13, 2026

Broadcaster Rami Al-Sharafi works on a laptop inside the damaged Zaman FM radio station building in Gaza, marking what may seem an unlikely return to the airwaves amid the rubble of the deadly two-year Israel-Hamas war.

While 23 local radio stations were operating in Gaza before the conflict erupted, they were all destroyed and ceased broadcasting, he told UN News.

“Today, we are the only radio station broadcasting on FM from within Gaza after this widespread destruction,” he said. “We hope that other local radio stations will resume broadcasting, thus allowing competition in providing media services to the people of the Gaza Strip.”

Ahead of World Radio Day, observed on 13 February, the resumption of broadcasting comes at a time when Gaza’s media infrastructure still faces significant challenges amid local and international calls to support journalism as part of broader recovery and reconstruction efforts in the sector.

A journalist works at a desk in a damaged office in Gaza, viewed through broken pillars. Another person uses a laptop in the background.

UN News

A journalist works in the damaged office of Zaman 90.60 FM radio station in Gaza City.

Digging through the rubble

After a hiatus of nearly two years due to the war, some local radio stations in the Gaza Strip are transmitting again, in a move showing gradual efforts to revive the media landscape in the war-ravaged Strip – much of which has suffered widespread destruction of infrastructure and civilian institutions from Israeli attacks.

Zaman FM operates in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood of Gaza City, where Israeli attacks triggered a famine and left mountains of debris in the streets.

The cracked walls of the station’s building tell a story of immense destruction and the scene inside is unlike any other radio studio in the world.

Employees dig through the rubble to keep the station broadcasting, working with minimal technical resources while behind them, awareness posters warn people of the dangers of dilapidated buildings.

On-air messages of hope

Local radio remains vital in Gaza as humanitarian crises persist, power outages continue and access to other media remains limited. This makes radio one of the most effective ways of getting key messages out to the public, along with health guidance and information about other services.

Gaza is in dire need of professional local radio stations capable of broadcasting awareness messages and guidance bulletins in light of the spread of diseases, the deterioration of the education system and the disruption of many basic services, said Mr. Al-Sharafi, director of the radio station and host of the morning programme, An Hour of Time.

“We need to deliver information to the population and guide them to the services that have stopped and are gradually being resumed,” he said, “especially in light of the difficult health conditions and the spread of epidemics.”

Amid the destruction all around, Mr. Al-Sharafi sits behind his dust-covered microphone and does just that.

He sends morning greetings to Gaza residents and provides them with important information and updates, bringing some much-needed hope to the airwaves across a devastated landscape that has only just begun to recover – UN News